Chapter 267

This time, Xing was choked awake by the thick smoke smell in the cabin.

She slowly sat up, her gaze meeting a pair of sharp green eyes.

"Awake?"

This time, the voice's owner was no longer a soldier, but a blond woman. She lounged sitting directly opposite Xing, her slender fingers playing with a cold, gleaming short dagger. She wore a form-fitting black leather outfit, with another curved dagger at her waist, and a faint smile on her beautiful face.

"……How the hell did I end up here?" Xing asked the air as usual, and Hei Ta immediately replied in her ear: "If I remember correctly, this should be a group of bounty hunters; the diverse worm ecology of Decay Star has attracted bounty hunters from star systems over the past ten thousand years, and this squad is just one of them."

"Didn't we agree to witness the worm king's ascension?"

"Don't rush, Xing; the simulated universe needs deduction. The result of the worm king's ascension is certainly important, but the process is equally not to be ignored." Hei Ta suddenly reminded, "You also need to ask this lady more questions; that's also an important part of the simulation."

"Oh… okay."

Xing looked around—sure enough, the cabin was packed with all kinds of hunters, some wiping weapons, some whispering, but their glances occasionally flicked to the blond woman, their eyes full of doubt and dissatisfaction.

Xing realized this was not a compliment, so she asked why she insisted on going to Decay Star despite everyone's opposition.

Xing realized this was not a compliment, so she asked why she insisted on going to Decay Star despite everyone's opposition.

"Because—" her voice was relaxed, like a non‑absorbent sponge, "this is just a game of compiling an insect compendium."

"Huh?"

The woman ignored Xing's surprise, merely smiling to herself: "Before the grand banquet begins, control of desire must be more focused, to avoid any slip‑ups."

Having said that, she gracefully crossed her arms in front of her chest, leaned slightly forward, her golden hair falling onto her shoulder armor, and extended an inviting hand to Xing.

Xing took her hand without hesitation, and at the same time the surroundings shifted dramatically; as a bounty hunter, Xing arrived at Decay Star with the main force and clashed with the Yi Lai Xi Si Na army here.

Xing stood on the cliff's edge; the bitter wind carried the foul stench of the worm swarm straight into her face. She widened her eyes—the sight before her had already surpassed what common sense could explain.

The entire plain was writhing.

Hundreds of millions of worms surged like a tide; the sound of their carapaces rubbing together was like millions of rusty blades scraping against each other. Whenever the hunters' gunfire cleared a patch, these worms would instantly replicate to fill the gap.

Farther off, the ground suddenly bulged into a huge mound, and a worm as large as a warship burst from the soil, revealing its mouth full of sharp teeth, which swallowed an entire hunter squad on the spot.

"Looks like the Yi Lai Xi Si Na army has also been conscripting worms as weapons." Hei Ta's voice floated in from behind.

"Is this the power of proliferation?" Xing asked, turning back.

"No, replication and splitting are inherent traits of these worms, unrelated to 【Proliferation】; Ta Yi Zi Yu Luo Si hasn't appeared yet." Hei Ta frowned slightly with distaste and urged, "Let's go, the worms really reek."

—

One-Punch Man.

In the Monster Association.

Watching the worm swarm of Decay Star spread like a black tide, devouring everything in its path, the Wandering Emperor sat cross‑legged on a rock, chin in hand, intrigued by the scene.

"Tsk tsk, these worms' replication ability is far stronger than yours, Hei Se Jing Zi." He grinned, his tone teasing.

Hei Se Jing Zi, who had been lounging lazily to the side, jumped up at the words, veins bulging on his white face: "You idiot, I can split into over 54 trillion individuals! I can even recombine! With these worms, you're not even worthy of comparison!"

The Wandering Emperor chuckled, his tone leisurely.

But they don't need to recombine—you recombine because your split state can't win against the opponent, you fear constantly dying, but the worms couldn't care less about individual deaths. He pointed at the mountain of worm corpses piling up on the screen, "Living worms keep copying and splitting, while you… lose one for each death."

Hei Se Jing Zi was momentarily speechless, but soon retorted stubbornly: "Tch! So what? I can still blow them up with a single punch!"

"This time the simulated universe will feature a 【Proliferation】 star god—your fate might be affected, you know."

"Can it let me split infinitely?" Hei Se Jing Zi muttered.

"Maybe it can." The Wandering Emperor gave a slight smile, but after turning his face to the side, the smile quickly vanished.

……Being able to directly witness the birth of a star god this time is undoubtedly an important opportunity for him.

He really wanted to know whether the "divine" being who granted him power had any connection to the star god. If that being was the star god itself, then having received its gaze and been blessed with power, wouldn't he be… an envoy?

A flicker of excitement and delight welled up in his heart, causing the Wandering Emperor's lips to twitch upward unconsciously.

If he were an envoy, then ruling this planet would actually make sense, wouldn't it?

—

Bounty hunters usually like to live in groups, but when Xing arrived at the settlement, she found that the usual noisy clamor had completely vanished, leaving only silence.

Xing came to the female leader's room, pushed open the wooden door, and what seeped from the crack was not light but a kind of viscous, fluorescing green insect blood.

The room was full of crawling worms; some were dead, while others still writhed.

Xing jerked back a step, her back hitting the doorframe. A bone‑chilling chill ran up her spine, making all her body hair stand on end.

"Hei Ta, this… this…" her voice caught in her throat, turning into a hoarse whisper.

"Don't worry, Xing, you'll be fine in the simulated universe." Hei Ta comforted her in her ear, "According to the data, this female leader used something called 'Insect Powder Witchcraft' on her hunter companions."

"What is that?"

"It's probably some kind of hallucinogen… that makes people develop mistaken perceptions." Hei Ta explained, "The purpose, then, is to sow discord within the hunter group; in short, Xing, your current status is the only hunter not under the hallucinogen, and what you need to do is…"

Only then did Xing notice that a gun had somehow appeared in her hand, its cold barrel pointed at the woman in the room.

The female leader had her back to Xing; her slender silhouette was outlined by the sunlight outside the window in a dazzling gold edge. As the initiator of all this, her reaction seemed quite calm.

"You can silently count a few numbers in your mind." Hei Ta's voice hovered near Xing's ear, "Then aim at her temple and fire."